1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shift motion control device, and more specifically, to a shift motion control device suitable to prevent a shock from occurring at a time of a shift-in of an electrical shift of an outboard motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In some shift mechanisms for switching the transmission of power of an outboard motor between forward traveling and rearward traveling, a dog clutch has been used. Using the dog clutch, rotational force of a drive shaft can be transmitted to a propeller shaft by engaging the dog clutch, which is stationary along with the propeller shaft, with a gear that is rotating along with the drive shaft at shift-in.
Also, JP-A-2001-152897, for example, discloses a method for reducing the engine speed when movement of a shift lever out of a neutral position is detected while an engine is idling, in order to prevent the shock generated at shift-in.
In the method disclosed in JP-A-2001-152897, engine speed is reduced when the shift lever is moved out of the neutral position. However, this method also results in the engine speed being occasionally reduced while shift-in is not performed. Thus, an output of the engine becomes unstable.